This one-shot shows one aspect of the Thing’s Fear Itself induced rampage through New York. Part of the Future Foundation, as well as Alicia Masters, try to stop Ben Grimm.

Like many event tie-in mini-series and one-shots, they really only barely tie into the main event. And this is one of those.

There’s no indication of when, during the event, this takes place, but it can be assumed to be just after Ben grabbed the hammer and became one of the Serpent’s Worthy. This one-shot shows Reed and Sue trying to stop him and failing. It also shows Alicia Masters, Ben’s girlfriend, try to stop him.

The odd thing is that Ben speaks in this one-shot and he doesn’t in the actual event books themselves. Why is that? What makes this issue so special? The idea behind the one-shot is to show that Ben is being corrupted and guided by his fear. The one-shot is meant to show that Ben is afraid of what Sue thinks of his involvement in Johnny’s death and how that allows The Serpent to get ahold of Ben.

But the problem ends up being that Ben shouldn’t be able to talk in order to convey those feelings to Sue. In Fear Itself the Worthy just talk in runes that we can’t understand. So why is Ben able to talk normally in this issue?

And why to the creatures surrounding Ben also talk to him when they haven’t been shown to do so in the main event?

Grummett’s art is about what you would expect from him. He’ll never be one of the most exciting artists or one of the most dynamic but he can always be counted on to do decent work and draw a good comic book.

Fear Itself: FF receives
3.5 out of 5

Ultimately this one-shot doesn’t contribute anything to the main event or the FF itself.